Revenge of the “Sluts” Against Republicans

By incessantly trying to lose the elections, they will manage to do it. Republicans are now at war with a significant part of their electorate: women. After the war on science, taxes, health insurance and gay marriage… these gentlemen have launched an anti-contraception offensive. “This isn’t the 1950s,” protested Debbie Wasserman Shultz, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, calling all women “to chip in $5 or more” to the party in order to finance a counter-attack (nothing like “culture wars” to raise funds).

The campaign was supposed to be about the economy but it has taken a quasi-puritan turn. The pill has replaced unemployment. Foreign journalists who struggled with subprimes are now confronted with new challenges like how to translate “slut”, all while respecting the adequate degree of vulgarity. Perhaps, “Salope”? Or “Traînée,” as the oldest French dictionaries suggest. In any case, this is the word of the moment; according to the ultra-conservative Rush Limbaugh, the most listened-to radio show host in the country, it’s the right word to describe women who want the pill to be covered by their health insurance provider.

In the press, headlines that were before unheard of can now be read. Case in point, on March 2 in The Washington Post, a title read, “Virginia: uterus No. 1 priority on voters’ minds. Doubtful?” This is apparently the case for 82 percent of the local congress (which happens to be 82 percent men). At the initiative of Republican extremists, politicians spent hours debating the type of ultrasound to impose on women to discourage them from resorting to abortion. With horror, the public discovered all of the details concerning the types of transvaginal probes that women would be subjected to at the decision of lawmakers. Finally, Republicans retreated. An external ultrasound would suffice. “But if legislators keep indulging their sexist, retro tendencies, come November they’re going to find themselves left in the cold, with nothing but some red wine and a big-screen TV,” assured columnist Petula Dvorak.

Curiously, activists who are the first to complain about government intrusion in their lives see no contradiction in sticking their noses in issues relating to the pill and mammograms. Sometimes, those concerned aren’t even consulted. In mid-February, when representative Carolyn Maloney stood up for a Congressional hearing on contraception, she exploded, “Where are the women?” The panel had been carefully selected to include a Catholic bishop, a Lutheran reverend, a rabbi and so on — five men, no women.

The debate focuses on Barack Obama’s decision to extend contraception reimbursement, made mandatory by the health care reform of 2009, to religious institutions. Republicans are against this. They consider it to go against religious freedom and that no one has the right to require a Catholic establishment to subsidize a practice going against its conscience. President Obama responded that churches themselves were exempted from payment and that insurance companies don’t have a conscience. An Orthodox, Muslim or Buddhist custodial employee working in one of the country’s 600 Catholic hospitals has the same right to free contraception as an employee in the public sector.

The discussion ran amok when Rush Limbaugh lashed out on Sandra Fluke and all other “femi-nazis” on the air. He referred to the student who testified on the cost of contraception in Congress as a “prostitute” saying, “If we are going to pay for your contraceptives, and thus pay for you to have sex, we want something for it and I’ll tell you what it is. We want you post the videos online so we can all watch.” Since then, the bigot in chief hasn’t stopped apologizing, but nine of his sponsors have already dropped him.

In 2008, Barack Obama won the votes of women by 7 percentage points against John McCain. This year, Democrats were worried about the half-heartedness of women from well-to-do suburbs, the new target category of pollsters. Since January, women voters have woken up. Mr. Obama has had a 10-point rise; 30 percent of Republicans agree with the president on the issue. Conservatives thought they were riding a key issue in the president’s offensive against religion. Then the latent misogyny emerged and the Republicans are stuck with the image of being a somewhat outdated party. As billionaire Foster Friess, financer of ultra-Catholic Rick Santorum’s campaign, says, “Back in my days they used Bayer aspirin for contraceptives. The gals put it between their legs and it wasn’t costly.”

Those were the good ol’ days. Girls kept their legs closed and health insurance wasn’t ruined.